Play another day
Evgeny Bareev played 13 games in the Corus Chess Tournament in Wijk aan Zee
and had just one day to recover from that tour-de-force. On Tuesday the first
game of his match against Hiarcs X started. His results so far (three easy draws)
prove that it is not necessary to have a certain version of an engine weeks
or even months in advance. Bareev: “I just play and really don't care
what the name of the program is: Fritz, Junior or Hiarcs, what´s the difference?
I am a professional chessplayer, I just play”.
Mark Uniacke keeps on working on his engine, even in Maastricht :”Since
Hiarcs 8 was released last year, I have made 196 new versions, this version
in Maastricht is called Hiarcs 8.196”. I have been able to work full-time
on the engine since october. I hope that Hiarcs 9 will be released this year.
I do only release a new version when it is at least 40 ELO points stronger than
its predecessor. And this Maastricht version is at least 60 points stronger
than Hiarcs8. I would not mind to get the top spot on the SSDF list again”.
After 13 games in Wijk and two in Maastricht, Evgeny Bareev wanted to think
of something other than chess. Your reporter and match director Hans Adriaanse
joined Evgeny to see “Die another day”, the newest James Bond movie.
Evgeny told me that he is James Bond fan: ”I have at least ten Bond movies
on tape in Moscow”. Afterwards he smiled: “Hmm, no Russians in this
movie, does that mean that we are not the bad guys anymore?”
In the third game, Bareev obviously did not want to be the bad guy with black.
In an French Defence, Hiarcs chose another variation as in game 1, but could
not get an advantage. The English program grabbed a pawn, but it was not difficult
to equalize for black. After 36 moves Bareev offered a draw. Mark Uniacke accepted
that offer. “I am a bit dissapointed that I could not get more out of
the opening with white. I have been through a lot of Evgeny's games, but it
is hard to find a weak spot in his repertoire. His openings are sound and it
is difficult to get an advantage.”
The last game will be played on Friday, 31 January, 13.00 CET. The games are
to be found on the official
website. You can also follow them live on the Playchess.com
server.
Eric van Reem
Press officer Chess Events Maastricht Foundation
